ustxtxb_obs_1998_03_27_50_00029-00000_000.pdf

The stories the other media somehow left out are just at the end of your mouse. DownHome with The Texas Observer. Now you can read your favorite Observer features on The Texas Observer DownHome Page: Investigative Reporting, Molly Ivins, Jim Hightower, Political Intelligence, and all the rest. Also on our site is a list of progressive organizations on the web folks who share our progressive politics. the Editors http://texasobserver.org rampolipe” NASHVILLE A UNOVILIA,AL MUSIC COMPANY www.mca-nashville.com 0 t99b MCA floCod6 Nazhvill4, n DiViG1011ot MCA Record% Inc. “Vouchers,” from page 7 funders could raise if they mortgaged everything they owned. There is an enormous amount of cynicism attached to this sort of issue-related campaign giving. What looks like principle at a distance, is politics-as-usual at close range. Minority inner-city candidates have accepted $500 to $1,000 checks, but their entire intake was less than the $10,000 provided for right-wing Lubbock Democrat Carl Isset who will vote against teacher raises, smaller classes, and improved curriculum as long as he is an elected legislator drawing breath. And he is just one of a pack of Christian right franchises elected by Mansour, Leininger, Walton, and a myriad of other Republican PAC funders. If you want to understand what is driving the Texas legislative movement for school vouchers, don’t read Chuck McDonald’s lips, or Bob Bullock’s resignation letter. Read instead the canceled checks of James Leininger, and Jimmy Mansour, and John Walton if you can find them, as the funders will now re-PAC and try to recover from an embarrassing episode. Short term, these guys will use inner-city children as a first step, and even spring for a few tickets for poor minority kids to attend rich majority schools. In the long term, as Republican Representative Rick Williamson said after the House came as close as ever to passing a voucher program after the whole system.” MARCH 27, 1998 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 29